Friday, 30 November 2012

By Robert Schoch

Parapsychology
is full of anecdotal accounts of strange occurrences, which cause many people to
simply shake their heads in disbelief.1 The phenomena of parapsychology
grade into the mysteries and miracles that are the boon and bane of much
religion. After all, to use a Christian example (and in no way am I making a
statement about Christianity per se), not only can Jesus and the saints perform
miracles, but so can Satan and his cohorts!

When it comes
to the question of whether or not parapsychological phenomena are real, for
many people the stakes are high, as the answer has the potential to confirm or
deny their worldview. Some are incredulous when it comes to telepathy, even
though it has been statistically demonstrated time and again in laboratory
settings, whereas the credulity of others stretches much, much further.

In popular
culture often the reality, or not, of the paranormal (viewed popularly as
“miracles”) is seen as confirming, or refuting, one of the fundamental tenets
of many religions, namely life after death. As the late parapsychologist and
University of Virginia (Charlottesville) psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson (1918 –
2007) wrote,

Some persons
can segregate beliefs about different aspects of non-material existences and
events. This would be particularly likely to be true of persons who have made a
special study of psychical phenomena…. However, I think that members of the
general public do not usually make such a distinction. For most of them, a
belief in life after death almost entails a belief in miracles, such as the
phenomena described in the Bible, and also a belief in what we call paranormal
cognition. Conversely, members of the general public who do not believe in life
after death are also likely to be skeptical about all kinds of paranormal
phenomena, the recognition of which would imply for them a soul that would
survive bodily death.2

The
Incredulity Meter

I am
absolutely convinced that telepathy is real, even if a somewhat fickle and
uncontrollable phenomenon. Given the choice between a telephone and telepathic
rapport to communicate an important and specific message, I will use the phone.
In my opinion there is nothing miraculous about telepathy, although how it
occurs remains a mystery (there is still no generally agreed upon theory as to
the mechanism for telepathic transmission).3 I should note, however,
that I always attempt to maintain a healthy skepticism about any particular
claim of telepathy (it is human nature to be disingenuous, or to fool one’s
self), but there are plenty of well-documented cases of telepathy in the
literature, and I have had my share personally.

My incredulity
meter really begins to perk up when it comes to physical parapsychological
phenomena, such as psychokinesis and levitations, materialisations of solid
substances out of “thin air,” or the ability to withstand physical trauma, such
as walking on hot coals or applying extreme heat or fire directly to the skin
without damage. Lacking good, indeed virtually impeccable, documentation for
certain extreme feats of this nature, I instinctively dismiss them as nonsense,
or at the least remain agnostic.

Of all the
cases that register high on my incredulity meter, however, some are classics
and though they may boggle the imagination, it is difficult to dismiss them.
Here I will focus on particular aspects of two such celebrated examples from
the history of parapsychology, one from the seventeenth century and the other
from the nineteenth century. They are, in the opinions of some, intimately tied
to religious beliefs and the concept of miracles.

The
Flying Saint

Saint Joseph
of Cupertino (San Giuseppe da Copertino, 1603-1663; born Giuseppe Maria
Desa in Cupertino, southeastern Italy) was considered rather dull witted (in
modern terms, he may have suffered from learning disabilities), and said to
possess a violent temper (a point we will return to). Joseph was extremely
pious, however, and became a Franciscan friar. Joseph exhibited various mental
psychic phenomena; for instance, it is said he was aware of the thoughts of
penitents and knew if they were not fully honest and forthright during
confession. Due to his mental deficiencies, he could learn only a small amount
of material at a time. When preparing for exams he simply studied one specific
topic, and then prayed that that would be the very subject, of all possible subjects,
that would be asked of him – and so it was. Was this an example of
precognition, or was Joseph telepathically influencing or accessing (perhaps
unconsciously) the examiners in terms of the questions they would put to him?

Joseph was
also said to have the power to heal the sick. But it was his bodily
levitations, his literal flights in the air, that he is most famous for, and
which by many are considered to be absolutely mysterious and miraculous, either
justifiably earning Joseph the appellation of Saint (he was canonised in 1767),
or in the skeptic’s opinion dismissal as either a fraud, or at the least
someone who incited hallucinations among those witnessing the supposed
levitations. At first glance, St. Joseph’s flights rank high on my incredulity meter.4

Although we
are separated from St. Joseph by three and a half centuries, and his time still
contained a strong element of superstition and anti-scientific sentiment (after
all, the Inquisition was in full swing during Joseph’s lifetime, persecuting Galileo
in 1633), it is still difficult to dismiss all of the varied eyewitness
accounts of Joseph’s flights. Reportedly the first levitation was in his
hometown of Cupertino during an outdoor procession on the feast day of St.
Francis of Assisi. Joseph took off, flying over the crowd. After it was over,
in embarrassment, he fled to hide in his mother’s house. From then until the
end of his life, Joseph experienced uncontrolled fits of bodily levitation.
Various minor incidents could potentially initiate a levitation: a casual
remark about the wonders of God, or viewing an image of the Virgin Mary, could
send Joseph into ecstasy, and then with a loud sob or cry he would fly into the
air.

His reported
flights were not trivial. On one occasion he flew from the middle of the church
to the high altar, a distance of forty feet, and remained there for about
fifteen minutes before descending. He once flew over the heads of bystanders to
reach a statue of the Immaculate Conception, and then flew back again over their
heads once more. Another time he reportedly flew eighty yards, over a pulpit,
to a crucifix.5 During another levitation he ended up in a tree, and
once he came out of his trance he was unable to get down until a ladder was
fetched. On several occasions he carried another person up with him, holding
them by the hand or hair.

Although it is
“only” eyewitness testimony (but what else can we have from the seventeenth
century?), it is incredibly varied and consistent, and Joseph’s levitations
were not always viewed positively. Indeed, his superiors often found Joseph to
be an embarrassment. His unannounced flights during solemn ceremonies could
cause a disruption. Once floating before the altar holding the Holy Sacrament,
his sandals fell off. Joseph was at times banned from choir practices, public
masses, and even from meals with his fellow friars. Joseph and his “miracles”
attracted a huge following, and especially later in his life, the church
authorities periodically attempted to place him in seclusion. In my mind, these
facts only reinforce that the levitations may well have been genuine. Prominent
witnesses to Joseph’s levitations were the High Admiral of Castile, Spanish
Ambassador to the Papal Court (his wife fainted at the sight); John Frederick,
Duke of Brunswick (who converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism as a result of
witnessing Joseph levitate); and Pope Urban VIII (during a papal audience
Joseph fell into ecstasy and levitated).

The
Inquisition and Poltergeists

What do we
make of Joseph’s levitations? Could they have been genuine? They are difficult to
explain away as hallucinations on the part of the witnesses. Furthermore, they
hardly fit the mold that would be expected of stories tailored to aid in the
canonisation of a beloved friar. Due to the publicity he attracted, in 1638
Joseph was investigated by the Inquisition in Naples, but cleared of any
wrongdoing. Joseph’s levitations were undisciplined, uncouth (he apparently
cried out at the start of each incident), and disrupting to those around him.
What is really pertinent in my mind is that Joseph is not the sole example of
such levitations, for similar phenomena are reported widely in medieval church
accounts, popular folklore, and in ethnographic accounts of “primitive” peoples
and their myths.6

Joseph’s
levitations strike me as perhaps a form of self-directed “poltergeist”
affliction. Derived from the German, meaning a boisterous or noisy ghost,
typical poltergeist incidents include strange noises (scratching, raps, knocks,
banging) and the movement of objects. In a typical poltergeist case objects
inexplicably fall off of shelves or get thrown through the air even when nobody
is close enough to reach them, and no physical means are apparent that could
have caused the objects to move.

As the physicist
and early psychical researcher Sir William Barrett wrote in 1911, “Of the
genuineness and inexplicable nature of the phenomena there can be no manner of
doubt, in spite of occasional attempts at their fraudulent imitation.”7

It appears
that in most cases the affected objects are not being moved by spirits or
ghosts, as traditionally believed, but unconsciously via paranormal means by a
living person, someone who is typically emotionally or psychologically
disturbed, with unresolved repressed feelings of deep guilt or fear, and
intense “hysterical” tendencies. The poltergeist instances swirling around such
a person are a sort of unconscious acting out and externalisation of the
emotions.

Interestingly,
very similar types of poltergeist phenomena have been described for thousands
of years in different cultures on different continents;8 such
facts lend credence to the idea that poltergeist instances are genuine (and I
will admit that I have witnessed a mild poltergeist instance first-hand).
Modern researchers, such as Dr. William G. Roll,9 have
intensively studied various modern poltergeist cases and it is clear that the
paranormal movement of material objects against the forces of gravity and
inertia is real (that is, objects are levitated) and such movements follow
general patterns (as would be expected of a genuine set of phenomena).

I believe that
Joseph was a psychologically disturbed, highly conflicted, individual prone to
extremes in temperament. This is evidenced by his reported fits of rapture and ecstasy,
as well as his occasional violent temper (even the saints can have bad days, I
suppose). His own frustration with his apparent learning disabilities and
mental limitations probably added to his troubles. Joseph also suffered from
cataleptic or epileptic fits, convulsions, and severe attacks of depression
(melancholia, as it was called10). Joseph, I suggest, did
genuinely levitate. I hypothesise that Joseph was essentially the centre of
what we might now refer to as poltergeist activity (or to use the more modern
terminology, recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis, RSPK), but in his case the
activity (the levitation of objects, or an object) was directed unconsciously
toward his own physical body. Joseph basically inflicted the levitations upon
himself.

The
Levitations of Home

In the
nineteenth century the famous Scottish (though raised in America during his childhood)
spiritualistic medium Daniel Dunglas Home (1833 – 1886) was known for his
bodily levitations, as well as levitations of other objects, in séance
settings.11
In one famous instance, Home reportedly went into a trance and was levitated
out a window about seventy feet from the ground, observed to be floating in the
air outside an adjacent window (seven and a half feet from the first window), and
then glided in through the second window feet first.

The well-known
English physicist and chemist, Sir William Crookes (1832 – 1919; he was
knighted in 1897), a careful laboratory experimentalist (among other things, he
was a co-discoverer of the element thallium, invented the Crookes radiometer,
and developed Crookes tubes), carried out investigations of D.D. Home and other
so-called mediums. Crookes witnessed Home levitate numerous times, as he
describes in his own words:

The best cases
of Home’s levitation I witnessed were in my own house. On one occasion he went
to a clear part of the room, and, after standing quietly for a minute, told us
he was rising. I saw him slowly rise up with a continuous gliding movement, and
remain about six inches off the ground for several seconds, when he slowly
descended. On this occasion no one moved from their places. On another occasion
I was invited to come to him, when he rose eighteen inches off the ground, and
I passed my hands under his feet, round him, and over his head when he was in
the air. On several occasions, Home and the chair on which he was sitting at
the table rose off the ground. This was generally done very deliberately, and
Home sometimes then tucked up his feet on the seat of the chair and held up his
hands in full view of all of us. On such occasions I have gone down and seen
and felt all four legs were off the ground at the same time, Home’s feet being
on the chair. Less frequently the levitating power extended to those next to
him. Once my wife was thus raised off the ground in her chair.12

All
Hallucinations?

The reported
incidents of levitation by Home, both of his own body and objects around him, are
numerous, reported by many witnesses, and they fall into a larger pattern
including not just St. Joseph. As the early psychical researcher and Scottish
folklorist Andrew Lang (1844 – 1912) wrote,

…when we find
savage ‘birraarks’ in Australia, fakirs in India, saints in mediaeval Europe, a
gentleman’s butler in Ireland, boys in Somerset and Midlothian, a young warrior
in Zululand, Miss Nancy Wesley at Epworth in 1716, and Mr. Daniel Home in
London in 1856-70, all triumphing over the law of gravitation, all floating in
the air, how are we to explain the uniformity of stories palpably ridiculous?13

Other than
mechanical tricks, such as concealed strings, wires, and rods (which, in my
opinion, really strain credulity as an explanation for the best cases of
levitation in the likes of Joseph or Home – I hardly think Crookes would have
overlooked a mechanical apparatus and they seem out of the question for
Joseph), a classic “explanation” for levitations is that of “excited
expectation” and “mass hallucination” on the part of the duped observers.

Addressing
this theory, Lang received the following information from Mr. Hamilton Aïdé (a
member of the nineteenth century London literary scene):

The argument
of excited expectation and consequent hallucination does not apply to Mr.
Hamilton Aïdé and M. Alphonse Karr… Both were extremely prejudiced against
Home, and at Nice went to see, and, if possible, to expose him. Home was a
guest at a large villa in Nice, M. Karr and Mr. Aïdé were two of a party in a
spacious brilliantly lighted salon, where Home received them. A large heavy
table, remote from the group, moved towards them. M. Karr then got under a
table which rose in [the] air, and carefully examined the space beneath, while
Mr. Aïdé observed it from above. Neither of them could discover any explanation
of the phenomenon, and they walked away together, disgusted, disappointed, and
reviling Home.14

So, might at
least some (if not all) of Home’s levitations have been genuine? Possibly. And
possibly they were due to self-inflicted poltergeist-type manifestations. My
sense, reading about his life and career, is that Home, like Joseph, suffered
from various emotional and psychological issues, and it is documented that he
was the focus of classic poltergeist manifestations during his youth. It is
often stated that Home was never caught in any fraudulent behaviour. This is
true to a point. In fact there were allegations of fraud made against Home, but
these were investigated explicitly, and thoroughly, shortly after Home’s death
by the meticulous psychical researches W.F. Barrett and F.W.H. Myers, who
concluded “…we have found no allegations of fraud
[italics in the original] on which we should be justified in laying much
stress.”15

Fire
Ordeals

Besides his
levitations, Home was also well known for his ability to handle hot coals with immunity,
and even to be able to transfer this ability to observers around him.16 Home
could perform such feats as holding a handkerchief in his hand, and place a hot
piece of charcoal on it, taken directly from a burning fire, and yet the handkerchief
would not burn. Crookes studied these fire phenomena intensely, even subjecting
such a handkerchief to laboratory analyses afterwards to test for fire
retardants, but found nothing unusual. Likewise, hot coals applied to St.
Joseph’s body had no effect when he was in an ecstatic trance.17
Indeed, incidents of handling hot charcoal, coal, and other hot objects,
walking on fire, and other “ordeals by fire” are widely reported in the
ethnological literature18 and in that sense are nothing unusual, but are they
genuine or simple conjurers tricks?

In 1959 the
psychiatrist Berthold Eric Schwarz, M.D., investigated first-hand fire ordeals
among members of a fundamentalist Christian sect, known as The Free Pentecostal
Holiness Church, found in the rural mountain regions of Kentucky, Tennessee,
Virginia, and North Carolina. On numerous occasions Schwarz observed church
members place their hands and feet in kerosene flames with immunity.19

In one
instance, shortly after washing his hands (thus presumably precluding the
possibility that they were coated with a fire retardant or non-conducting
substance), an individual smeared fuel oil on his hands and feet, and held them
in a flame for over ten seconds, but they did not burn. He poured a pool of oil
into his cupped hand and attempted to light it with a torch, but it only
flickered and would not burn. As a control, Schwarz reports that both an iron
poker and a wooden dowel sprinkled with the fuel oil burst into flames when the
torch was brought to them, and Schwarz himself could not keep his own hand
closer than three centimetres to the torch flame for more than one or two
seconds without pain or being burnt. Other examples of fire handling reported
by Schwarz include:

On three
occasions, three different women held the blaze [from kerosene or fuel oil
torches] to their chests, so that the flames were in intimate contact with
their cotton dresses, exposed necks, faces and hair. This lasted for longer
than a few seconds. [This is very similar to the immunity to fire that Home was
said to be able to impart to handkerchiefs, clothing, and people. – Note by
Schoch.] Twice, at separate times, one of the ‘most faithful of the saints’
slowly moved the palmar and lateral aspects of one hand and the fifth finger in
the midpoint of an acetylene flame… He did this for more than four seconds, and
then repeated the procedure, using the other hand…. Once this saint, when in a
relatively calm mood, turned to a coal fire of an hour’s duration, picked up a
flaming ‘stone coal’ the size of a hen’s egg and held it in the palms of his
hands for 65 seconds while he walked among the congregation. As a control, the
author could not touch a piece of burning charcoal for less than one second
without developing a painful blister.20

Although he
did not observe it directly, Schwarz was told that during winter services the
young girls would hug red-hot stovepipes and pass around hot glass lamp
chimneys with immunity. The key to these miracles, at least according to his
informants, was that one must be in a trance and truly believe that no harm
will occur. When not entranced, even members of the sect suffer burns. Schwarz
recounts a couple of examples. A male congregant was applying a kerosene torch
to his hand with no ill effects, until he noticed that a piece of the wick was
breaking off. This caused him to come out of his religious trance and he
suffered a burn only in the one spot where the flame had touched his skin
post-trance (the areas where the flame was applied to his skin during the trance
were not affected). In a similar manner, a female congregant who had often
handled hot glass lamp chimneys with immunity developed blistering burns when,
one night when the electric power at the church failed, she reflexively grabbed
a burning kerosene lantern hanging on a wall. She was not in a trance state at
the time and so suffered.21

Something
Strange

Are
levitations and fire ordeals real? Is there something more to them than simple
conjuring and fraud? If so, how do we explain what is happening? Mysteries and
miracles? Do such phenomena support certain religious beliefs, or the value of
faith? Do we need to extend our common sense concepts of what is possible? I
will refrain from making pronouncements but, to quote the title of Professor
Archie Roy’s book on the paranormal, I have “A Sense of Something Strange.”22

Footnotes

1. Parapsychology
is the study of paranormal psychical phenomena such as direct mind-to-mind
interactions (telepathy), precognition, and the possibility of mind-over-matter
phenomena (also known as psychokinesis). For an introduction to parapsychology,
see Robert M. Schoch and Logan Yonavjak, compilers and commentators, The Parapsychology Revolution: A Concise Anthology
of Paranormal and Psychical Research, New York: Jeremy P.
Tarcher/Penguin, 2008.2. Ian
Stevenson, “Thoughts on the Decline of Major Paranormal Phenomena”, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,
vol. 57, part 215, pp. 149-162 (April 1990); quotation from p.155.3. See
discussion of, and evidence for, telepathy in Schoch and Yonavjak, 2008.4. For
information on Joseph’s life and paranormal feats, see Brian Inglis, Natural and Supernatural: A History of the
Paranormal from Earliest Times to 1914 (Revised Edition), Dorset:
Prism Press, 1992; Andrew Lang, Cock Lane
and Common-Sense, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1894; Montague
Summers, The History of Witchcraft,
New York: The Citadel Press, 1970 (originally published 1956).5. Lang, 1894,
p.104.6. Lang, 1894;
see also, Andrew Lang, The Making of
Religion, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1898.7. William F.
Barrett, “Poltergeists: Old and New”, Journal
of the Society for Psychical Research, vol.15, pp.36-40 (1911);
quotation from page 37 and reprinted on page 103 of Schoch and Yonavjak, 2008.8. Lang, 1894,
1898; Caesar de Vesme, A History of
Experimental Spiritualism, Vol. 1, Primitive Man (translated from
the French by Stanley de Brath), London: Rider and Co., 1931; Caesar de Vesme, A History of Experimental Spiritualism, Vol. 2,
Peoples of Antiquity (translated from the French by Fred Rothwell),
London: Rider and Co., 1931.9. William G.
Roll, “Poltergeists, Electromagnetism and Consciousness”, Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol.
17, no. 1, pp.75-86 (2003); reprinted in Schoch and Yonavjak, 2008, pp.105-122.10. Lang,
1894, p.102.11. For
general information on the life and mediumship of D.D. Home, see W.F. Barrett
and F.W.H. Myers, “Review of D. D. Home,
His Life and Mission, by Madame Dunglas Home”, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research,
vol.4, pp.101-136 (July 1889); Stephen E. Braude, “The Fear of Psi: It’s the
Thought that Counts”, Darklore
vol. 2, pp.98-111, 266-267 (Brisbane, Australia: Daily Grail Publishing, 2008);
Hereward Carrington, The Physical
Phenomena of Spiritualism, Fraudulent and Genuine, Boston: Small,
Maynard & Co., 1908; William Crookes, Researches
in the Phenomena of Spiritualism, London: J. Burns, 1874; David
Fontana, Is There An Afterlife? A
Comprehensive Overview of the Evidence, Blue Ridge Summit,
Pennsylvania: O Books, 2005 [2007 reprint]; D.D. Home, Incidents in My Life, London: Longman,
Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1863.12. Quoted in
Carrington, 1908, p.380.13. Lang,
1894, pp.99-100.14. Lang,
1898, pp.362-363.15. Barrett
and Myers, 1889, p.102.16.
Carrington, 1908, pp.399-409.17. Lang,
1894, p.103.18. See
discussion and references in Carrington, 1908; Berthold Eric Schwarz, Psychic-Nexus: Psychic Phenomena in Psychiatry and
Everyday Life, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980.19. See
Schwarz, 1980, chapter 1, “Ordeal by Serpents, Fire and Strychnine: A Study of
Some Provocative Psychosomatic Phenomena,” pp.3-24 (originally published in Psychiatric Quarterly, vol.34,
pp.405-429 (July 1960).20. Schwarz,
1980, p.14.21. Schwarz,
1980, p.15.

22. Archie E. Roy, A
Sense of Something Strange: Investigations into the Paranormal,
Glasgow: Dog and Bone Press, 1990. Archie Roy, Emeritus Professor of Astronomy
at Glasgow University and a past president of the Society for Psychical
Research, has carried out extensive research on paranormal phenomena; he agrees
that there is “something to it” and psychical research deserves to be taken
seriously.

ROBERT M. SCHOCH, Ph.D., is renowned for his
work on re-dating the Great Sphinx. Based on his geological studies, he
determined that the Sphinx’s origins date prior to dynastic times. He has also
focused his attention on the Great Pyramid and various other temples and tombs
in Egypt, as well as studying similar structures around the world. Dr. Schoch
is an author and coauthor of both technical and popular books, including the
trilogy with R. A. McNally: Voices of the
Rocks: A Scientist looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations
(1999), Voyages of the Pyramid Builders:
The True Origins of the Pyramids from Lost Egypt to Ancient America (2003),
and Pyramid Quest: Secrets of the Great
Pyramid and the Dawn of Civilization (2005). Dr. Schoch’s most
recent book is The Parapsychology
Revolution: A Concise Anthology of Paranormal and Psychical Research
(2008, compilation and commentary by Robert M. Schoch and Logan Yonavjak).
Website: www.robertschoch.com.

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this far…

Dr. Lipton, maybe we should start
with the basics. As a global community, we’ve gotten ourselves into “this fine
mess” through poor choices and irresponsible actions. What shapes our
behaviour?

Human
behaviour is the consequence of a large, collective number of personal
individual beliefs. The more people who share the exact same beliefs, the more
they manifest an energy field which then precipitates a complementary physical
field. The way that we’re living and the beliefs that we entertain collectively
are materializing as an expression.

The way we’re
living today, only five per cent of our lives is controlled by the conscious
mind—the seat of desires and aspirations. That means 95 per cent of our lives
is controlled automatically by the “default,” which is subconscious
programming, and which is primarily downloaded from observing other
people’s behaviour. Whatever our parents, family and teachers said to us, like
“you’re not loveable, you’re not smart enough, you’re not good enough, you can
do better, you don’t deserve anything—that all becomes part of our subconscious
mind’s programming. Then, by definition, 95 per cent of the time we’re
unconsciously operating from subconscious mind and, in that state, unaware that
we’re manifesting the consequences of programs acquired from other people.

On a
conventional day we’re five per cent conscious of our behaviours and moving
towards where we want to go, and 95 per cent unconscious and moving towards
wherever the program derived from others say we’re supposed to go. The Jesuits
knew this 500 years ago. They would say, give me a child and I’ll show you the
man. They also said, give me a child until it’s six or seven and it’ll belong
to the church for the rest of its life. Which means, give me your first six
years and I own the rest of your life. Why? Because you’re going to be
operating from the subconscious programs we download into your mind for most of
your life. This is how we become cultivated, cultured, encultured and enslaved.

If it’s collective thinking
that’s affecting the future of the planet, who or what is doing such large
scale, destructive programming?

Our behaviour
is based on our beliefs, and our beliefs reflect beliefs we acquire from
institutions like academia, religion, politics, the economy and health care.
These institutionalized beliefs have shaped and held the world’s current mass
thinking. Originally, the current beliefs were very useful in helping civilization
evolve; however, our continued use of these beliefs is now detrimental and
leading us to extinction. The crisis the world now faces is evidence that these
beliefs are profoundly flawed.

Since the
1870s we’ve lived in a world where we seek truth through science. When we ask,
“Is it true?” we’re really asking, “Is it scientific?” When opinion is
handed down from science, we buy it as “truth.” However, frontier science has
recently challenged the fundamental “truths” of conventional science, truths that
represent the foundation of today’s beliefs. Though science is changing its
truth, the public is unaware of this new knowledge. Simply, we’re living by
truths that are no longer valid.

“Belief” is a concept that we
most often associate with religion. How does religion fit into this picture?

The role of
“belief” in our lives isn’t new stuff—it’s ancient. I’m not a religious person,
especially because I think that in part, the institution of religion has led to
many of the problems that we currently face. But if you just listen to some of
the words attributed directly to Jesus, not particularly other people’s
interpretations of them, he offered, “You can heal your life with your belief.
You can do all the miracles I can do, but you don’t believe.” This wisdom in
light of the “new” biology is absolutely true.

There are
fundamentalist Christians in the south who do something mind-blowing and
profound—in testifying that God protects them, they drink strychnine poison in
toxic doses. And nothing happens to them. That’s kind of miraculous, isn’t it?
Other people walk across hot coals. If they fully believe they can, they’re not
going to get burned. Questioning that belief in the middle of the walk leads to
burns and blisters. In other words, the fundamental truth is that we’re not
victims, we’re creators and it’s all based on our beliefs.

You wrote that, “The new
biological imperative for humankind necessarily involves the understanding that
we’re all in this together and survival of the fittest must now give way to
‘thrival of the fittingest.’”

The current
model of life and science is flawed. The Darwinian concept, which is a
fundamental cultural belief in our civilization, is that life is a struggle for
existence and competition for fitness is the primary drive. If we build a
culture based on competition where does it lead? It basically leads to war.
That’s a perception of a belief that’s been enculturated and expressed as a
competitive world where we say in effect, “Screw the other person.” But the
fact is that real evolution isn’t based on that principle. It’s based on
completely the opposite—on cooperation. Our fate is linked to how well we
cooperate with Mother Nature. If we wonder why the competitive model is not
working, it’s because evolutionally it’s the pathway to death; it’s completely
contrary to the way evolution actually works.

Ultimately
what it all comes down to is that we have to recognize and own our
responsibility in creating today’s world, because it’s our thoughts that are
manifesting this reality. We must also recognize that 95 per cent of the time
we’re unconsciously and invisibly manifesting our experiences based on the
behaviours downloaded into our subconscious minds.

It sounds a little like a good
news-bad news scenario. The good news is that thoughts create and the bad news
is that thoughts create. The Universe just says yes, it doesn’t care what we
put out there.

True. The
fundamental programs, beliefs and attitudes which affect how you’re going to
shape your life were primarily programmed into your subconscious by other
people. Even though they’re not necessarily correct or life-supporting, they
still manifest as reality.

Our
institutions are perpetuating old, flawed beliefs which are provoking the
extinction that we’re facing. Civilizations end and new ones begin when
cultural beliefs fundamentally change. In the previous civilization, where we
acquired our beliefs from the church, morality was a fundamental drive
underlining cultural beliefs. When we entered our current phase of civilization,
referred to as “scientific materialism,” morality was left behind. Science
doesn’t dictate morality; science just defines how nature works. Science
emphasizes the “ends” but not the “means” to get to those ends. If we try to
perceive morality in the theory of Charles Darwin, then we end up in the deep
trouble we now face.

Because this balance between a
spiritual understanding of the world and a physical understanding of the world
has shifted so much, how important is it that we balance our physical and
spiritual lives? Where does that fit into this bigger picture?

In the world
before scientific materialism, when civilization was controlled by the church,
Western civilization believed something like this: I’ve got my physical life now and my invisible, spiritual life is a
future after death. When science took over, the Newtonian emphasis
on the physical reality left us with the belief in a physical existence, but
challenged the belief in a spiritual afterlife. Then quantum physics changed
the game. Rather than a physical emphasis, the new science recognizes that the
universe is made out of a “shaping” energy called the field: invisible moving forces that
shape the physical world. Interestingly, the definition of spirit is invisible
moving forces that shape the physical world.

Quantum
physics reveals that both matter and energy exists, and they’re both the same
thing! The original quantum physicists in the 1930s recognized that the
universe was immaterial and it was based on human
consciousness. Simply, it’s through our consciousness that we manifest the
world we experience. While most people would perceive life on Earth as being
more akin to purgatory or even hell, the truth is we’re living in heaven, a
place where we can create our dearest wishes. I’m sure most people would say,
“I wouldn’t create this mess on Earth.” And I would agree with them, but, as
mentioned, we’re only consciously creating our world five per cent of the time.
The rest of our creation efforts are shaped by our subconscious programming,
using beliefs that are actually controlled by other people’s beliefs.

What if you
were creating your life strictly from conscious wishes and desires? You
actually did that if you ever fell head over heels in love. The period called
the “honeymoon” wherein you created heaven on Earth, is a reflection of your
creative abilities and, as recognized by science, was due to you operating
nearly 100 per cent of the time using your conscious mind and not defaulting to
the subconscious programs.

There seems to be so much fear
out there right now. The 2012 end-of-the-world predictions haven’t helped that.
Do we have a reason to fear for the future of humankind?

Most people
are in total apprehension right now. What they’re feeling is that civilization
isn’t working and our survival is in question. It’s interesting because that
feeling starts way below our level of consciousness. It reflects the activity
of what’s called the Biological Imperative, the drive that all living things
have, not just humans. One of the fundamental drives, of course, is survival.
Our biological system is designed to read when survival is in question. The
problem is that the imperative is an unconscious drive. People are feeling
something individually and collectively and don’t recognize it’s part of the
energy of a field that is in change. Operating from current beliefs, we’ve come
to the realization that civilization is unsustainable, and our imperative is
giving us warning.

As Einstein
said, “We cannot solve the problems with the same thinking that created them.”
The failing of today’s institutions is necessary because their beliefs have
directly led us to this time of crisis. The failing of the institutions is necessary
to allow new, sustainable thinking to enter our world. But rather than
prompting fear, I see the radical changes before us as the necessary step for
our survival and our evolution.

You’ve said that you think
there’s mounting scientific evidence that points to an imminent, major
evolutionary shift for the human species. What evidence is that? Are we looking
at evolution or extinction?

Yes, I realize
that science has verified that we’re going extinct, that we’re heading toward
the planet’s sixth mass extinction. In fact science has compared the rates of
species extinction today with the mass extinctions events in the past. We’re
losing species faster today than in previous extinction events. For example,
it’s estimated that in 30 years the fish will be fished out of the ocean. The
idea of a planet Earth 30 years from now with no fish in the ocean seems like
science fiction, but no, if we continue
decimating the fish population and destroying the ocean’s ecosystems process,
the end is evident and imminent.

Our evolution
and survival are based on the existence of a supportive environment. When we
alter the environment too much and knock out species necessary in the chain of
life, human survival is truly in question. The sixth mass extinction is a
scientific reality and the conclusion of science is that it’s due to human
behaviour. We have to stop ignoring the future because it’s not that far away
anymore. If you or your children are planning to be around in 20 more years,
you’re likely to see a major environmental catastrophe. Yet, if we wake up NOW,
there’s still time to make a positive impact and help avert what appears to be
an inevitable crash.

In your new book, you wrote that,
“We are currently in dire need of evolutionary advancement and don’t have time
for a slow, gradual evolution.” What does “spontaneous” evolution look like?

Human
civilization is coming to a fork in the road and if we don’t make the right
choices, our destination may end here. If we make the appropriate changes,
jumping out of a belief system that is self-destructive and move into a belief
system that is self and nature supporting, we can make a big impact and change
destiny by creating one great community of human beings called Humanity. We really must step out of
our current reality—out of this self-destructive manifestation—and entertain
the creation of a new, healthy, harmonious reality. We’re collectively creating
a world, so if we collectively envision a different world, then we collectively
experience a different world. The spontaneous part is that as soon as the
consciousness changes—at that very moment—Earth changes occur as well.

Linda
M. Potter is a writer, popular speaker and the author of If
Only God Would Give Me a Sign! available through Barnes and
Noble, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and WordKeepersinc.com. Linda is also
managing editor of a popular new thought and leading-edge magazine published in
northern Colorado.

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